Starfleet's finest miracle worker must find a way to restore the timeline before the galaxy is overrun...
Introduction (blurb)[]
- From the book jacket
- The machine age.
- After the apparent death of James T. Kirk on the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B, Montgomery Scott decides to leave Starfleet. A chance encounter with a mysterious woman named Guinan leads him to hitch a ride on the USS Jenolen -- which crashes into a Dyson Sphere, leaving only Scotty to survive suspended as a transporter pattern...
- Seventy-five years later, he is revived aboard the Enterprise-D -- on which Guinan serves as bartender. But fate has not finished with either Scotty or Guinan. The engineer hatches an audacious plan to travel back in time and rescue Jim Kirk the moment before he would vanish into the Nexus and bring him back to the twenty-fourth century without damaging the timeline.
- Scotty's plan, however, does not go as expected. Though Kirk is rescued, the famed captain and the engineer, as well as Captain Picard, Guinan, and the crew of the Enterprise-D, are trapped in an altered past where there is no Federation, and no human race. Sarek of Vulcan leads a ragtag collection of species fighting a losing battle against the Borg, who have swarmed into the Alpha Quadrant and assimilated Earth.
- Starfleet's finest miracle worker must find a way to restore the timeline before the galaxy is overrun...
Summary[]
A year after Kirk's apparent death in the Nexus, retired Captain Montgomery Scott decides to join the Norpin V colony thanks to a brief encounter with Guinan. As seen in "Relics," that journey would see him trapped in a transporter pattern buffer for 75 years until the Enterprise-D rescues him. After being given the shuttlecraft Goddard, he roams space, haunted by dreams of Kirk and Ensign Matt Franklin, who died in the buffer.
About six months after being rescued, Scott responds to a distress call from two Narisian siblings, Garamet and Wahlkon onboard a century-old Starfleet shuttlecraft. Their race's technology has been accelerated by an unknown race called the Wise Ones. They lead Scott back to the equally-ancient Klingon Bird-of-Prey in which the Narisian Proctors discovered the shuttlecraft. Scott repairs the ship and christens it Bounty 2, but decides not to tell Starfleet about his find.
Instead, he returns to the Enterprise-D to retrieve the logs of the original Bounty's trip to the 20th century, planning to reproduce the incident to save his captain. Guinan becomes concerned about his intentions, prompting the Enterprise to pursue his shuttle. Scott has enough of a head start to rendezvous with the Bounty 2, so the Enterprise follows him as closely as possible.
Arriving more or less when he means to, Scott beams Kirk from the Enterprise-B just before he would be pulled into the Nexus. At that instant, the Enterprise-B disappears, replaced by a pair of Borg cubes. Similarly, when the Enterprise-D arrives a few days later, its crew find themselves in a timeline overrun by Borg.
References[]
Characters[]
- Balitor • Beverly Crusher • Borg Queen • Data • Garamet • Guinan • Houarner • James T. Kirk • Kasok • Koval • Geordi La Forge • Jean-Luc Picard • Porfirio • Sariel Rager • William T. Riker • Sarek • Montgomery Scott • Demora Sulu • Tal • Deanna Troi • Varkan • Wahlkon • Worf • Zarcot
- Referenced only
- B'ator • Gregor Campbell • Lance Cartwright • Pavel Chekov • Samuel Clemens • Zefram Cochrane • Corlwyn • Matt Franklin • John Harriman • Adolf Hitler • Jonah • Cyrano Jones • Edith Keeler • Ro Laren • Locutus of Borg • Leonard McCoy • Christopher Pike • Clara Preston • Hamish Preston • Q • Spock • Buck Stratton • Sybok • Sean Toricelli • Nyota Uhura • Volak
Locations[]
- Alpha Quadrant • Andor • Arhennius • Arhennius system • Glasgow • Narisian system • Nexus • Scotland
- Referenced only
- Alliance Outpost Number 2 • Alliance Outpost Number 3 • Alliance Prime • Alpha Centauri • Beta Quadrant • Cardassia • Cromarty • Delta Quadrant • Earth • El-Auria • Glasgow University • Narisia • Neural • New York • Norpin V • San Francisco • Saturn • Scottish Highlands • Sol • Sol system • Starfleet Academy • Starfleet Museum • Venus • Vulcan
Starships and vehicles[]
- Borg cube • Bounty II (B'rel-class Klingon bird-of-prey) • D'Zidran • El-Baz (shuttlecraft) • USS Enterprise-B (Excelsior-class) • USS Enterprise-D (Galaxy-class) • Goddard (shuttlecraft) • Wisdom
- Referenced only
- Borg sphere • Bounty (B'rel-class Klingon bird-of-prey) • Cormier • USS Enterprise (Constitution-class) • USS Enterprise-A (Constitution-class) • USS Intrepid II • USS Jenolin • Lakul • Robert Fox • USS Senzig (Antares-class) • USS Yandro
Races and cultures[]
- Betazoid • Borg • Cardassian • El-Aurian • Human • Klingon • Narisian • Romulan • Tellarite • Vulcan
- Referenced only
- Andorian • Denebian • Species 874 • Species 1429 • tribble • Trill
States and organizations[]
- Alliance • Alliance Council • Borg Collective • Inner Circle • Starfleet • United Federation of Planets
- Referenced only
- House of Gorm • Klingon Empire • Romulan Star Empire • Starfleet Command
Other references[]
- Alshaya • ambassador • ant • antimatter • antimatter generator • aquarium • asteroid • asteroid belt • bar • biobed • black hole • bloodhound • Borg drone • Borg matrix • briar patch • butterfly • cannon • carbon monoxide • cat • chronometric radiation • class M • cloaking device • coupler • deflector dish • deflector shield • Deputy Arbiter • Devil • dilithium • disruptor • distress call • Dyson sphere • eagle • earthquake • fal-tor-pan • first aid kit • fish • fluorine • gravity • goblet • god • Grandfather paradox • Guardian of Forever • Hell • holodeck • holographic diode • hurricane • impulse engine • inducer • interphase cloaking device • Interrogation • journal • kaleidoscope • Khitomer Accords • knife • lifepod • log • medical tricorder • memoir • meteor • methane • mind meld • Mona Lisa • mouse • Nazi • nebula • nitrogen • oil • Oort cloud • oxygen • pattern buffer • phaser • photon torpedo • plane • Prime Directive • Proctor • rabbit • recycler • replicator • road map • roller coaster • Saurian brandy • scimitar • Scots • sickbay • slingshot • sonic shower • star chart • starbase • structural integrity field • subspace • supernova • Supreme Arbiter of the Alliance • Swiss cheese • synthehol • Ten-Forward • tiger • tornado • tractor beam • transporter • transporter buffer • transporter pad • transporter room • transwarp • transwarp conduit • tricorder • turbolift • viewscreen • warp drive • warp trail • water • whale • wood
Appendices[]
Related media[]
- The main framing of the story follows a short time after the events of Star Trek Generations, and shows Montgomery Scott dealing with his grief over the loss of Jim Kirk, who ended up in the Nexus.
- The loss and later discovery of Scott and the USS Jenolen are detailed in the TNG episode "Relics", which established that Scott and Matt Franklin were en route to Norpin V before crashing against the Dyson sphere. At the end of the episode, Scott is "loaned" the shuttlecraft Goddard from the USS Enterprise-D by Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
- The Borg take over the Alpha Quadrant due to their actions in Star Trek: First Contact; without Kirk being trapped in the Nexus, he could not leave to assist Jean-Luc Picard defeat Tolian Soran. Therefore, Picard and the rest of the Enterprise-D crew are lost at Veridian, and thus unable to follow the Borg sphere back in time and stop them from assimilating Earth.
- Along with First Contact, Picard's assimilation into Locutus of Borg is detailed in the TNG episodes The Best of Both Worlds. This is the Borg's first attempt to assimilate Earth (see Borg Incursion of 2366-2367), with the second shown in First Contact (see Battle of Sector 001).
- Sarek's memories of mind melding with Kirk, asking him to retrieve Spock's body, and asking the Vulcan Priestess to perform the fal-tor-pan are shown in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
- Kirk, Scott, and the rest of the Enterprise crew first performed a gravity slingshot through time in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
- The tenuous peace between the Federation and Klingon Empire that Scott wishes to avoid upsetting with his bird of prey is described in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
- The interphase cloaking device disaster that took Geordi LaForge and Ro Laren out of phase was detailed in the TNG episode "The Next Phase".
- Picard and Guinan first met, chronologically, in nineteenth century Earth as described in the TNG episodes "Time's Arrow".
- The known versions of characters whose alternate histories are described in the novel were shown in the following stories: Koval (The Art of the Impossible, "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"); Tal ("The Enterprise Incident", Vulcan's Heart); Volak ("Revelations").
- Picard meeting a time-shifted alternate aboard the shuttlecraft El-Baz is described in the TNG episode "Time Squared".
- Sybok is revealed as a son of Sarek when he tried to steal the Enterprise-A and find Sha Ka Ree and God in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
- Jim Kirk and Leonard McCoy's accidental alteration of the timeline by saving Edith Keeler's life via the Guardian of Forever is shown in the TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".
- Cyrano Jones and the tribbles are introduced in the TOS episode "The Trouble with Tribbles".
- Picard and Sarek mind melded slightly before Sarek's death as shown in the TNG episode "Sarek".
- Picard's suspicions of Q as originally being behind the timeline shift comes from their interactions in TNG episodes such as "Encounter at Farpoint", "All Good Things...", and others.
- Spock risking his career to save his former Captain, Christopher Pike, is shown in the TOS episode "The Cage".
Background[]
- Engines of Destiny has continuity differences compared to the "Relics" novelization.
- Sariel Rager's name is misspelled as "Raeger" in the novel.
- In the scene where Guinan and Scotty first meet in Glasgow, she toasts: "To the future... that is where we will all spend the rest of our lives." This roughly quotes The Amazing CriswellWP narrating the opening of the movie Plan 9 from Outer SpaceWP.
Images[]
Cover image.
Back cover image.
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| chronological order | ||
| Previous Adventure: Valhalla |
Next Adventure: Betrayal | |
| Previous Adventure: Descent |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) |
Next Adventure: Liaisons |
External links[]
- Engines of Destiny article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.